


Of Crushes and Alien Abduction

by lilaliacs



Category: Produce 101 (TV), Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Crack, Crushes, Gay Panic, M/M, also, friendship shenanigans, just dialogue and me trying to be funny basically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-03
Updated: 2018-03-03
Packaged: 2019-03-26 12:24:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13857726
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilaliacs/pseuds/lilaliacs
Summary: “There’s only one answer.” Woojin folded his hands and looked at Daniel with the most serious expression Daniel had ever seen on him. Frankly, it was terrifying.“Which is?”“Aliens.”





	Of Crushes and Alien Abduction

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sourpastels](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourpastels/gifts).



> happy late birthday shannon, sorry for forgetting about this ♡
> 
> find me on [twitter](http://www.twitter/wannaorbit)

“There’s only one answer.” Woojin folded his hands and looked at Daniel with the most serious expression Daniel had ever seen on him. Frankly, it was terrifying. 

“Which is?” 

“Aliens.” 

Daniel blinked at him. 

Woojin blinked back. 

It was silent, save for the sound of Jaehwan’s obnoxiously loud chewing. 

“Let me recap this.” Jihoon next to Jaehwan spoke up after so many blinks that Daniel had lost count and sense of reality. “Daniel comes to us, for help. For some good old friendship-brand advice. He sits us down and he tells us about this guy he likes- honestly and genuinely likes from what I’ve gathered here. And you, Woojin, whom Daniel considers a close friend, one of his closest even, dare I say, he sees you like a brother, you open your demonic mouth and say, with your demonic voice: ‘Aliens.’” 

“I have so many issues with this recap.” Woojin immediately replied, at the same time that Jaehwan said: “Yep, that’s what happened.” 

Daniel also thought that that was pretty close to what had just happened, but he was still caught up on the fact that Jihoon had said he “honestly and genuinely liked” Sungwoon. None of them stopped Woojin from talking. 

“First of all, you calling me demonic is rich, Jihoon. Second, you’re being way too dramatic and third, I have reasoning which I would have shared with you in a second, but you needed to be dramatic and accuse people of demonic tendencies, when you, yourself, are the most demonic-” 

“Neither of you are helping Daniel.” Minhyun spoke up. He had been quiet this whole time, no bickering, no unnaturally loud chewing, no random mention of extraterrestrial life. Daniel appreciated Minhyun. 

“Right.” Jihoon agreed. 

“Sorry.” Woojin added. 

“So,” Minhyun continued. “Since we’re here now and I’m honestly curious: What’s your reasoning, Woojin?” 

Jihoon looked short from actually booing at Minhyun’s decision, but he didn’t get to because Woojin immediately launched into talking a mile a minute. 

“Glad you asked. So, Daniel likes Sungwoon, and he has so for ages, realized it way too late. Everyone knew at that point, to be honest, no offense, Niel.” 

“None taken.” Daniel squeezed in in the second Woojin paused to breathe. 

“Now, I’m not particularly close with Sungwoon, but from the stories I heard he seems like a good guy. A great pal. Likable. _Very_ likable in Daniel’s case. And honestly, just judging from what I’m hearing the feeling is mutual. Sorry to break it to you so suddenly and betray you of your whole step by step realization slow burn arc, but I have a point to make.” 

“Wait.” Daniel tried. “Why do you think s-” 

But Woojin shushed him. Jaehwan sometimes said Daniel wasn’t authoritative enough with their younger friends, and Daniel usually answered that he was just a natural good cop in the good cop/bad cop scenario that was life. For his own sake though, Daniel sometimes wished he wasn’t.  
“And my point _is_ that Sungwoon seemed like he genuinely liked Daniel back, right up until now.” Woojin got up and started pacing in front of the rest of them. Daniel thought it was strange but not stranger than other things his friends did. Jaehwan kept munching on his chips. Jihoon snorted. Minhyun observed the situation with mild interest and not so mild amusement. 

“All of a sudden he’s acting different, he’s avoiding you, his demeanor changed completely.” Woojin listed. 

Daniel wished he wouldn’t. He had debated telling his friends about this at all, had then debated between calling Jisung at work or calling in an impromptu emergency meeting at campus without him, and then struggled to actually tell the impromptu gathering what was going on. 

He felt a little ridiculous about the whole thing. It wasn’t like him and Sungwoon were a _thing_ , they weren’t even that close, and it shouldn’t get to him as much as it did that something about the way Sungwoon talked to him had suddenly changed. It was probably nothing. He had probably imagined it. 

He had dwelled too much on it already, he had realized while recounting it to his friends, and Woojin repeating it now just made it seem all the more ridiculous. 

“The only possible explanation is: The real Sungwoon was abducted by aliens, the man you talked to today was a mere clone, an intruder acting like one of us. They probably couldn’t get a grasp on how to accurately replicate his social relations.” 

Daniel waited for one of the others to say something, for Jaehwan to throw chips at Woojin, for Jihoon to roll his eyes and insult him in that affectionate way he sometimes did, for Minhyun to calmly tell him to shut his mouth and sit down. None of that happened as quickly as Daniel wanted it to, which left him and his brain, already weary from too much overthinking today, to make something out of Woojin’s rambling. 

“So…” He started, to gain time. “Why exactly is this the only possible explanation?” 

Daniel speaking seemed to shake the others out of their trance. “Yeah,” Jaehwan agreed, but Daniel couldn’t miss the sarcasm layering his voice. “It could just be that Sungwoon hates Daniel’s guts all of a sudden.” 

“Not helping, Jaehwan.” Minhyun calmly cut in. 

“Maybe Sungwoon got very sick and is slowly cutting off all his social ties, so as to not hurt anyone.” Jihoon chipped in. 

“Stop being so fucking dramatic.” 

“You just pitched a whole alien theory, Woojin.” 

Before the bickering could start back up again, Daniel said, perhaps a bit louder than necessary: “Seriously though, why can’t it just be that he doesn’t like me?” 

It was what he had been scared of the most while over-thinking. Jaehwan’s version, Sungwoon just coming to the conclusion that Daniel wasn’t worth his time had been an option. 

Another, just as terrifying one was, that Sungwoon had somehow realized just exactly how Daniel felt about him. He had realized, had thought it was weird, didn’t want to confront Daniel about it and was now cutting him out of his life instead. 

In the light of these theories, Daniel suddenly wished Woojin’s version to be true.  
He would gladly go on a quest across the universe to bring the real Sungwoon back, Daniel thought. 

(Woojin was right, he was completely whipped and it was unbelievable that he had not realized this way earlier, Daniel also thought.)

He just knew that his friends’ absolute ignorance about the fact that Sungwoon could not reciprocate Daniel’s feelings despite his willingness to go on a space scavenger hunt, was peculiar. 

This mental roller coaster went unnoticed by his friends, partially because they had not yet managed to build a telepathic link, partially because they were busy laughing at Daniel’s question. 

“Daniel. Dan. Danny. Please.” Jaehwan got out in between bouts of laughter. 

“Oh man, you’re adorable.” Jihoon added. 

He felt like he was missing important information here and was just about to complain about that fact, when Minhyun took pity on him. Still chuckling, he explained: “Look, it’s as Woojin said earlier: from what you told us it would just be really weird if he didn’t like you back.” 

That actually explained nothing at all. “...Why?” 

Jihoon sighed. “Here’s the facts, buddy: You’re head over heels for him and bad at hiding that fact. You’re so sweet and caring it’s nearly socially unacceptable. You’re more than averagely handsome. Sungwoon, due to your inability to hide your crush, has been subjected to an overload of embarrassed smiles and giggles in the last few weeks. He’s just a tiny gay man, he seems like he’d be weak for sweet guys who could pick him up with one hand.” 

“So are you.” Woojin cut in with a shit-eating grin. 

Before Jihoon could give anything back, Daniel asked: “How do you know he’s gay?” 

He for one, hadn’t known that. He was friends with Sungwoon, sure, but they weren’t as close as to have a nice little chat about sexual preferences yet. It had actually been a reoccuring theme in his rollercoaster of gay panicking. 

“He dated that dude from my old dance crew.” Woojin explained. “I swear I told you this before.” 

“You didn’t.” Daniel replied. Possibly, Woojin had and Daniel had just not thought it important enough to remember at that point because he, unlike everyone else, hadn’t realized that he’d had a huge crush yet. 

“Okay so Sungwoon likes boys, Daniel likes Sungwoon, Sungwoon is being weird with Daniel. What happens now?” Jaehwan had finally finished the bag of chips and crumpled it up in one last obnoxious bout of noise. 

“That’s what I want you guys to tell me.” Daniel reminded him. 

“We can’t really drive this race for you, pal.” Jihoon looked nearly sympathetic. 

“Well someone needs to! I don’t even have my license!” He didn’t understand why Jihoon had chosen this analogy of all things, but it was easy enough to go along with. 

“If you need a ride somewhere, I have a car.” A voice behind him suddenly interrupted them. 

It had to be ridiculously comical how all five of them whirled around at the same time. 

“Sorry.” Sungwoon chuckled. It sounded like he was nervous. “I didn’t want to interrupt like that, I was just looking for- Uhm. Anyways, I’m Sungwoon, from Daniel’s biology class.” 

Minhyun was quickest to react. “Hi Sungwoon from Daniel’s biology class.” He smiled. “I’m Minhyun from Daniel’s middle school.” 

“I’m Jihoon, from Daniel’s dorm room.” 

“I’m Woojin, from Daniel’s dance team.” 

“I’m Jaehwan and I don’t understand why we’re introducing ourselves with our position in Daniel’s life.” 

Sungwoon laughed. Daniel loved when he did that. “Well, Daniel talks about you guys a lot!” 

“Of course he does, we’re his only friends, he only has us and his cats to talk about.” 

Before Jaehwan could say any other embarrassing things about him, Daniel intervened: “You said you were looking for someone.” He reminded Sungwoon. “Who is it? Maybe we’ve seen them around.” 

For all the times Sungwoon had acted strangely around him in the last few days, Daniel was glad that he seemed more or less normal now. There was a certain tense energy about him, but he didn't seem keen on cutting this conversation short. That was definitely an improvement. 

“I, uh…” Sungwoon looked unsure for a second, then took a deep breath. It seemed to Daniel like he was bracing himself for something. It was endearing. “You, actually.” 

“Oh?”

Not only was Sungwoon not trying to escape conversation with him, he was actually seeking it out? 

“Yeah, uhm, Seongwoo said you’d probably be around here somewhere with your friends.” Sungwoon continued, sending another nervous smile to the others. “So… can I talk to you for a second? Alone?” He threw another look at everyone else. “Sorry.” 

“Oh, it’s no problem.” Minhyun assured him, already getting up and ready to leave. 

“Wait, I still need to copy Daniel’s homework for-” Jaehwan spoke up, but Minhyun just grabbed the the hood of his jacket and pulled him along with him. “See you around!” He called over his shoulder. 

Daniel would have loved to tell Jihoon to stop grinning that evil grin, but his roommate was gone too fast. “So nice to meet you, Sungwoon.” He made sure to say before ushering Woojin to follow Minhyun and Jaehwan. 

“Yeah,” Woojin added. “Looking forward to seeing you a lot more!” Daniel hadn’t known Woojin was capable of grins just as evil as Jihoon’s. 

And then they were alone and Daniel couldn’t help but remember some fragments of his previous panicking. Sungwoon was talking to him, yes, but what if he had only looked for him to tell him that he didn’t want anything to do with him anymore? What if this was the last time he would talk to Sungwoon? 

He suddenly wished his friends were still there. 

“So, I realized something.” Sungwoon said after a few seconds of silence. 

_He realized you’re insufferable._ Daniel thought.

 _He realized you like him and thinks it’s weird._

“It took me way too long, to be honest.” Sungwoon continued. “I should have known earlier.” 

_That you’re the most annoying person on earth._ Daniel thought.

 _That I don’t want to associate myself with you ever again._

Sungwoon took another deep breath. Somewhere in between thoughts growing louder in his head, Daniel still thought it was endearing and he wanted to slap himself for it. 

It was like he was saying everything with that one breath he took, when Sungwoon continued: “I realized that I really like you and, this is a reach so correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you feel the same way and I didn’t know how to talk to you about this.” 

_Oh._ Daniel thought as he felt a faint blush rise to his cheeks and a smile making its way to his lips.

_Oh._


End file.
